Added a second stage to my dust collection system.

I have an older dust collector that I purchased used a few years ago, I think it is a Delta and was painted green. You can see Delta blue where the paint has come off.

I had been thinking on how to build a second stage to add onto my system, and had been reading blogs and watching u-tube videos. I even had been checking out trash cans to make the one with 2 pvc elbows but wasn’t in any rush to make one. That was until, I washed the lower and upper. I know your not suppose to wash them but they really looked bad.

Well, when I put them back on and turned on my system it started to fill the room with dust, you could actually see the dust blowing out of the poors in the upper bag.

When the dust settled….I knew it was time to get busy and do something.

I was at a customers and we were out in his plant as he was showing me around, he asked me if I wanted any barrels. My eyes got big as I saw these nice plastic barrels with lids stacked to the ceiling. He said that they threw them away as his supplier didn’t want them back. Well, when I left, a barrel went with me. I felt like a kid with a new toy.

I think without all the dust getting up into the top bag and clogging it up, the airflow actually seems better than before I added the second stage.

Since I first posted this, I have also added some filter material so that no dust gets through to the bags. It seems to be working really well, and I have noticed that a thin layer of dust is not all over everything in my shop.